Interior Oline Option

[Shake n Blake]

(03-15-2022, 11:43 PM)bengalfan74 Wrote: I don't want Hopkins back either. I don't understand why people think it's ok to keep a subpar player as a starter ? I don't buy the injury excuse at all. Fact is the guy is bad, really bad at run blocking and only average at pass pro.

And there's no way I'm penciling Carman in as a starter.

2 all the way

Somebody repped me and said people have trouble wrapping their heads around cutting certain players to get better. I think that's a big part of it.

I also think people formulate opinions about our players, and when those players get worse, they struggle to accept that things have changed and they need to go.

I don't buy the injury stuff, either, and if it is related to injury, sometimes players never fully get back to what they were. Not that Hopkins was ever great. He was average at best at his peak. Now he's far worse than that.

We have to learn how to let go of players like that. We're a SB caliber team now. We can't be shedding tears over players of that caliber. Would Pats or Chiefs fans lose sleep over Hopkins or Uzomah? Of course not. Heck, they lose stud players and talk like they're replaceable.

I was reading a Bucs forum to see what they thought about Cappa, and they were classy and admitted he was solid, but I saw zero people worried about it. On the Pats forum, they didn't even have a thread for losing Karras.

(03-16-2022, 12:57 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Because your "facts" are Fred Facts™ that aren't even answering the original question?

Question: How often does an offensive lineman go from dumpster fire as a rookie to pretty good in year 2?

Fred Facts™: In the last 10 years, an offensive lineman who was a UDFA 24 years ago went to the Pro Bowl in his 14th year after not starting his rookie year. So it happens all the time.

I was going to respond, but tbh this sums it up perfectly.

If Fred can come up with a list of guys who stunk up the joint as rookies, and really turned it on in year 2, I'll accept that. Until then, I think it's pretty reasonable to say we shouldn't be banking on anything out of Carman in year 2. He should be a backup with upside until further notice.

Way too much riding on this season to be penciling in a potential disaster to be blocking for the franchise.